Texans suck at making financial decisions, new study says

Texans suck at making financial decisions, new study says

The next time you whip out your credit card, you may be further contributing to Texas' financial illiteracy.
Photo via LivingDice.com

If you or someone you know is up to his eyeballs in credit card debt, it may not surprise you that a new study by WalletHub has discovered that Texans are among the least financially literate people in America.

In fact, among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, only nine states are worse with their money; Texas comes in at No. 42. WalletHub determined how well people deal with their finances via two different categories — planning and daily habits, and knowledge and education — and multiple factors within each.

On the planning and daily habits side, researchers weighed factors like the percentage of people who spend more than they make, percentage of unbanked households and percentage paying only the minimum on credit card balances. For knowledge and education, things like high school dropout rate and number of library branches per 100,000 people came into play.

Texas fared poorly in both categories, ranking No. 32 in planning and daily habits and No. 40 in knowledge and education. Texas ranked especially low — No. 47 — in the percentage of people who borrowed money from non-bank lenders, a practice that's known to be particularly onerous for lower-income people.

If you want to live somewhere where people make better choices with their money, you can either head east to No. 1 New Hampshire or west to No. 2 Utah, which garnered top 10 rankings in both categories.

The next time you whip out your credit card, you may be further contributing to Texas' financial illiteracy.
Photo via LivingDice.com